When Justine Sullivan gave birth to her son, Conor, she had been intending to breastfeed him.
However, Conor couldn't latch on properly and the process was exhausting for both mum and baby with doctors advising she bottle feed him instead: "They advised I should top up with formula because it was unlikely he was getting enough from me. It was frustrating but I took their advice."
Justine suffered four bouts of mastitis as well as nipple thrush which was passed to her baby son and he got oral thrush.
The exhausted mum took Conor to a GP on four separate occasions where Conor was treated for colic, for which Justine says he did not have symptoms.
Eventually, Justine took her son to a breastfeeding counsellor: "The first thing she did was put her finger in Conor's mouth. She told me he was tongue-tied and this was the reason he was having trouble. I couldn't believe no one had checked before."
Babies who are tongue-tied have a shorter frenulum and so find it difficult to latch their tongue properly onto the breast in order to feed.
Many babies are relieved of the issue with a short procedure called a frenulotomy, which takes just a few minutes and then allows them to breastfeed easily afterwards.
